Re-unification talks resume

The leaders of the Greek and Turkish communities on Cyprus this week resumed talks on re-unifying the divided island after a freeze of 18 months. Nicos Anastasiades, the president of the Republic of Cyprus and leader of the Greek Cypriots, met Dervis¸ Eroglu, the leader of the Turkish community, on Tuesday (11 February) in the United Nations-administered buffer zone that cuts through the capital, Nicosia.

Anastasiades – elected president on a pro-settlement platform a year ago – and Eroglu issued a joint statement reaffirming their determination to end the island’s division. Turkey took control of the northern one-third of the island in 1974 in response to an attempted coup by Greek nationalists seeking unification with Greece, although tensions between the communities date back to independence from Britain in 1960.

The statement says that the status quo is “unacceptable” and that its continuation would have “negative consequences” for both communities. It reiterates the two sides’ commitment to the creation of a “bi-communal, bi-zonal federation with political equality” with “a single, international legal personality and a single sovereignty… which emanates equally from Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots”. It says that there will be a single Cyprus citizenship as well as citizenship of the Greek-Cypriot and the Turkish-Cypriot constituent states.

The talks broke off in mid-2012 after several years of negotiations on a possible settlement, begun by the two leaders’ predecessors. The earlier talks produced a number of so-called ‘convergences’ in the six issue areas into which the negotiations have been split: governance and power-sharing, EU matters, security and guarantees, territory, property, and economic matters.

Özdil Nami, the chief diplomat of the Turkish Cypriots, told European Voice that the EU could become “a catalyst” for a settlement if it takes a “bipartisan” approach. “Unfortunately what we’re seeing is petty politics from the EU,” he said. He accused the Republic of Cyprus and its allies in the EU’s Council of Ministers of “blacking everything that the [European] Commission wants to deliver for the Turkish Cypriots”. Turkey’s bid to join the EU has in effect been blocked by differences over Cyprus. “The more welcome the Turkish Cypriots feel in the EU, the more courageous are the steps the two leaders feel they can take [in the talks],” he said.

Priority

Antonis Samaras, Greece’s prime minister, said on Friday (7 February) that the Cyprus problem was the number-one priority of Greek foreign policy. Greece is the current holder of the rotating presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers.

Following Tuesday’s resumption, the talks will now be led by Andreas Mavroyiannis, the Greek Cypriot chief negotiator and Cyprus’s former ambassador to the EU, and his opposite number on the Turkish side, Kudret Özersay. Özersay resigned two years ago when it became apparent that the talks would not yield an agreement; his re-appointment last week was seen as a signal that the Turkish side wants a settlement.